Victor de Broglie

Victor de Broglie (28 November 1785-25 January 1870) was Prime Minister of France from 12 March 1835 to 22 February 1836, succeeding Edouard Mortier and preceding Adolphe Thiers. He was a member of the liberal Orleanists.

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Victor de Broglie was born in Paris, France in 1785, the son of general Charles-Victor de Broglie. His father was guillotined in 1794 during the French Revolution's "Reign of Terror", and the family lived in exile in Switzerland until after the Thermidorian Reaction ended "The Terror". In 1804, he became the Duke of Broglie, and he became a member of Napoleon I's Council of State in 1809. Broglie was aware that the Bourbon Restoration needed to be reconciled with the Revolution in order to bring peace to France, and he opposed any reactionary seizure of power in the country. In June 1814, Broglie became a member of the Chamber of Peers under King Louis XVIII of France, and he was the only peer to support the acquittal of Michel Ney in 1815.

Broglie became a liberal politician during the Bourbon Restoration monarchy, and he became President of the Council and Minister of Public Worship and Education under the new July Monarchy. During his tenure, he oversaw the restriction of the freedom of the press in response to the June Rebellion of 1832. Broglie also served as Prime Minister from March 1835 to February 1836, resigning after failing to prevent an increase in taxes. From 1836 to 1848, he was almost completely aloof from politics, and the French Revolution of 1848 was a great blow to him, as he saw constitutional monarchy as the political system best suited for France. He nevertheless took up a seat in the National Assembly under the French Second Republic, and he became an opponent of the Second French Empire, although he later said that Emperor Napoleon III was the emperor that the poor desired and that the rich deserved. He died in 1870.